Trekkie
writes, McG has reported
left the employ of Warner Brothers over a dispute on
location. WB wanted to film in Austrailia, McG said
New York. From what I’ve seen of McG’s work,
this is a good thing.

8 Comments

GrimSeanJuly 13, 2004 @ 8:49 pm

I can’t film there – it’s not here!

“When I flew to New York to scout, I became enamored with our greatest American city,” McG said. “It was clear to me that this was Metropolis. As a filmmaker, I felt it was inappropriate to try to capture the heart of America on another continent. I look at Superman as a character that embodies all that is beautiful about America.”

I wonder if anyone told him that Metropolis was originally modeled on Toronto.

fizikoJuly 14, 2004 @ 4:05 am

Re: I can’t film there – it’s not here!

I wonder if anyone told him that Metropolis was originally
modeled on Toronto.

I doubt it, since Superman originally lived in Cleveland,
where he could get to either coast very rapidly. Still,
it’s not New York, but it was American.

madhackJuly 14, 2004 @ 12:44 pm

Re: I can’t film there – it’s not here!

I wonder if anyone told him that Metropolis was originally
modeled on Toronto.

I doubt it, since Superman originally lived in Cleveland,
where he could get to either coast very rapidly. Still,
it’s not New York, but it was American.

So I see. I’d heard Siegel modelled it on Cleveland. I suppose the truth is a combination of the two; the look came from Toronto, but the geography came from Cleveland. I’ll know much better when that affordable copy of Superman Archives Vol. 1 arrives in December.

So I see. I’d heard Siegel modelled it on Cleveland. I suppose the truth is a
combination of the two; the look came from Toronto, but the geography
came from Cleveland. I’ll know much better when that affordable copy ofSuperman Archives Vol. 1 arrives in December.

Both Gotham City and Metropolis are New York. Each pole of new york,
enhanced to a full city. Metropolis is the shiny skycrapers and the grandeur,
Gotham is the gritty, dirty, smelly New York. And both are east-coast major
ports (except in SmallVille, where metropolis is visible from Kansas).

They might have had different models in their infancy, but its been that way
for a very long time. In fact, I was in NY recently, and my hotel was very near
the place where Sups makes his first drop of a criminal to a cop in the 1st
movie : )

TheEndIsNighJuly 15, 2004 @ 8:22 am

Re: I can’t film there – it’s not here!
Watched the extended version of the 1st movie just a couple of days ago. In this movie, Metropolis is undeniably NYC. As far as I’m concerned, this is a mistake (but then, I think devoting 20 minutes to political squabbles on Krypton was a mistake as well). Metropolis and Gotham are both clearly caricatures of New York, but neither one IS New York, regardless of what New Yorkers would have us believe.

My only ‘official’ source is DC Heroes, but I believe that there, Metropolis is in Delaware (maybe Maryland). Gotham is definitely in New Jersey, somewhere in the Hoboken/Hackensack area.

(The rest of this is a spoiler, but surely everyone here has seen Superman…)

Speaking of Hackensack… If Lex Luthor’s lair is under Park Avenue, Manhattan, why does Miss Tessmacher have to convince Superman to stop the Hackensack missile first? Regardless of his feelings for Lois and Jimmy, there’s no way that flying from New York to California, then back to New Jersey, is a better approach than flying from New York to New Jersey (probably really Kentucky or Pennsylvania, since he’s intercepting earlier), and then on to California. He’s got access to all the accumulated knowledge of 28 galaxies, he ought to have at least a passing acquaintance with the Travelling Salesman problem.

graikorJuly 14, 2004 @ 8:41 am

Yay, but to be fair…
OK, I’m glad that McG is off the project, since he has never shown an interest in making a film that was more substance than flash, but I see his point. Where you shoot a film can make a big difference in how the film feels, and films faking New York are usually pretty obvious (Rumble in the Bronx has mountains in the background of some shots!).

jayhawk88July 14, 2004 @ 10:31 am

Oh Darn
Seriously, he needs to be smacked upside the head for calling himself “McG”.